I would like to welcome my new students to your Literacy Support Year 2013-14. I welcome parents to check in regularly on my Teacher Page. I am currently working with Grade 1 Students for Literacy Support. In my class, students receive an individually designed one-on-one lesson for 30 minutes daily.  In this lesson, they will follow this format:1. Reading 2 or 3 familiar books: Your child will read 2 to 3 familiar books that they have already had a Running Record completed on and are now familiar with this book. 2. Reading Yesterday's New Book: As your child reads the new book that they have been introduced to yesterday, a running record is taken: After the running record, work is done together to strengthen your child's reading skills.3.  Letter Work/Breaking Words Apart (BWA): This is done with magnetic letters to strengthen the letter names and letter/sound knowledge. 4.  Writing a Story: Your child and I will have a conversation about something your child is interested in. At this time,your child will write a story in their own writing book. New words that are used frequently are learned and strategies are learned for constructing new words.5.  Cut-up Story: The story that was written is put on a sentence strip which is then cut-up and reassembled by the child.  This is sent home for further practice.6.  New Book: Every day the child reads a new book that is well within his or her control.*Over the duration of the lesson series, your child will receive nightly homework consisting of several books to read and the cut-up sentence in their homework bag. Homework including BOTH reading and assembling the sentence are to be completed each night to strengthen your child's reading and writing skills. Your cooperation in ensuring homework is completed each night, is appreciated as you are paving the way to your child gaining strong literacy skills for the next grade levels. I request that the plastic bag, the texts and the cut-up sentence be returned daily and signed only AFTER homework has been completed.**If there are any questions or concerns in regards to homework, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school. I welcome parents to come and observe your child's lesson. **Please feel free to contact me and I can book a time where I will have your child in lesson. 

Welcome to all of my new group of Reading Recovery students and parents/guardians! I would just like to let you know a few things about the Reading Recovery Program! First of all: The program is designed to boost both the reading levels and performance of your child's reading level and abilities! This also includes their writing skills! It is a 30-minute intensive program, where there are two books read at first, then a third book in which a Running Record (which is a record of your child's reading, that is completed every day). Then we do a letter match, a comparison of two letters, in either the sounds or visual. Then we do what is known as Breaking Words Apart (BWA) in which I simply take a word, model it for your child by spelling, then saying the word, breaking it apart where the main sounds connect and put it back together. The child repeats this pattern and a concrete understanding of the word, spelling and chunking methods of that word is introduced. After that, your child will do their writing. They have their writing notebooks in which blank sheets of paper are used without lines, to help your child improve their writing skills without the distraction of a line. This also strengthens the hand coordination while they are writing. I then conduct a little Running Record on their story as they re-read it to me and then I write it out on a paper strip, cut it and have them re-organize it. Finally, we do the new text. It is an introduction to the new story, where I would model some difficult areas with your child and then have them begin their reading of it. This is all enveloped in a 30-minute solid structure. The program is intensive, lots of homework each night and a great deal of co-operation is required of your child as well, in order to get all their tasks completed in a full 30 minute class. It is vitally important that parents have their child do their homework each night, even on the weekend, as the program is intensive and must be followed. Your support is greatly appreciated by helping your child each night and ensuring their work is done in complete, signed and returned each day! Thank you and Good Luck to All the New Students!! :) Sincerely, Miss Ellison